Weekend Box Office Report: ‘The Good Dinosaur’ and ‘Creed’ Face Off Against ‘Mockingjay’

Once families finished feasting on Thanksgiving, they had several options: continue enjoying each other’s company in the privacy of their own home, brave the crowds in search of deals at the retail store of their choice, or nip any potential argument over politics in the bud by heading out to the movies. Option three was apparently a popular one this year, as the overall top 10 for the week was the healthiest it has been in awhile, with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 fending off The Good Dinosaur and Creed, which still performed well.

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

$52,600,000 (-49%)

$12,359

$198,312,000

2

The Good Dinosaur

$39,192,000

$10,454

$55,565,000

3

Creed

$30,120,000

$8,848

$42,600,000

4

Spectre

$12,800,000 (-14%)

$4,354

$176,056,000

5

The Peanuts Movie

$9,700,000 (-26%)

$3,140

$116,757,000

6

The Night Before

$8,200,000 (-17%)

$2,770

$24,102,000

7

The Secret in Their Eyes

$4,502,000 (-32%)

$1,882

$14,031,000

8

Spotlight

$4,495,000 (+27%)

$5,011

$12,347,000

9

Brooklyn

$3,832,000 (+230%)

$4,535

$7,289,000

10

The Martian

$3,300,000 (-13%)

$2,324

$218,640,000

Let’s just get the big one out of the way first before we take a look at the new releases. Mockingjay – Part 2 took a 49 percent fall from last week, but with $52 million over the weekend alone, it’s actually performing better than some analysts had predicted (audience reaction to the film has been mixed). With $198 million at the domestic box office so far, it should hit $200 million by tomorrow…but then what? It’s certainly not going to match the first two movies, though it still has a shot at reaching the heights of Mockingjay – Part 1. In any case, if the last adventure of Katniss Everdeen is going to break $300 million, it needs to do it in a hurry since Star Wars is only a few weeks away now.

In second place, The Good Dinosaur opened well, but far short of the usual Pixar film. Although it grossed $55 million over the five-day holiday, only $39 million of that comes from the weekend, making this one of the smallest openings in the history of the company. Compare it to Inside Out, a far less marketable idea that managed to open to $90 million earlier this year before going on to become one of the biggest hits of 2015. The Good Dinosaur should be fine. It’ll continue catering to family audiences throughout December and should showcase strong legs. $200 million is very likely, but we wouldn’t bet on it going much higher than that.

In third place, Creed made $42 million in five days, with $30 million of that coming over the weekend. That’s great for a movie that was far from a sure thing, but strong reviews and stronger audience buzz made this Rocky spin-off a must-see for just about anyone (it helps that it feels like the default “will appeal to the most family members” movie of the week). With a budget of only $35 million, it’s already well on its way to being an enormous hit. Expect it to become the next The Martian as word gets around about how good this thing is.

Outside of the top 10, Victor Frankenstein bombed with only $2.3 million. You can blame the awful marketing and the worse reviews for that one.

Elsewhere, serious Oscar contenders Spotlight and Brooklyn expanded into more theaters and broke into the top 10, with $4.4 and $3.8 million each. Those aren’t huge numbers, but they’re strong enough to indicate that the slow rollout for both films is working. As awards buzz continues to gain momentum for both, the number of theaters playing them will increase and the box office should hopefully continue to increase with it. Since audiences seem to like or at the very least appreciate each film, both of them could be on the path to sleeper hit status.

In the rest of the top 10, Spectre continued to doing solid business (although it’s lagging behind Skyfall in a huge way), The Peanuts Movie continued making reliable if not spectacular money, The Night Before took a tiny 17 percent drop (which means it could be a minor hit yet), and The Martian prepared to finally exit the top 10, just shy of $220 million.